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THE    MENACE 


OF  A 


PREMATURE  PEACE 


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VH1\ 


cAN  oADDRESS 

William  Howard  Taft 

Former  President  of  the  United  States, 
Delivered  at 

MONTREAL,  CANADA 


September  Twenty-sixth 
Nineteen  Hundred  and  Seventeen 


70 

Published  by  the 

LEAGUE  TO  ENFORCE  PEACE 

FIFTH  AVENUE,                                                       NEW  YORK 

THE    MENACE    OF    A    PREMATURE    PEACE 

By   William    Howard   Taft 


ENGLAND,  France,  Russia,  Italy,  and  now  the  United  States,  as 
allies,  are  engaged  in  the  greatest  war  of  history  to  secure 
permanent  world  peace.  With  twenty  or  more  millions  of  men 
at  the  colors,  with  the  losses  in  dead,  wounded  and  captured  of  more 
than  twenty-five  per  cent.,  with  debts  piling  mountain-high  and  reaching 
many,  many  billions,  they  are  fighting  for  a  definite  purpose,  and  that 
is  the  defeat  of  Germ,an  militarism.  If  the  Prussian  military  caste 
retains  its  power  to  control  the  military  and  foreign  policy  of  Germany 
after  the  war,  peace  will  not  be  permanent,  and  war  will  begin  again 
when  the  chauvinistic  advisors  of  the  HohenzoUern  dynasty  deem  a 
conquest  and  victory  possible. 

The  Allies  have  made  a  stupendous  effort  and  have  strained  their 
utmost  capacity.  Unready  for  the  war,  they  have  concentrated  their 
energy  in  preparation.  In  this  important  respect  they  have  defeated 
the  plan  of  Germany  "in  shining  armor"  to  crush  her  enemies  in  their 
unreadiness. 

But  the  war  has  not  been  won.  Germany  is  in  possession  of 
Belgium  and  part  of  northern  France.  She  holds  Servia  and  Roumania, 
Poland  and  the  Baltic  Provinces  of  Russia.  Peace  now,  even  though 
it  be  made  on  the  basis  of  the  restoration  of  the  status  quo,  "without 
indemnities  and  without  annexations,"  would  be  a  failure  to  achieve  the 
great  purpose  for  which  the  Allies  have  made  heartrending  sacrifice. 
Armaments  would  continue  for  the  next  war,  and  this  war  would  have 
been  fought  in  vain.  The  millions  of  lives  lost  and  the  hundreds  of 
billions'  worth  of  the  product  of  men's  labor,  would  be  wasted. 

He  who  proposes  peace  now,  therefore,  either  does  not  see  the 
stake  for  which  the  Allies  are  fighting,  or  wishes  the  German  military 
autocracy  still  to  control  the  destinies  of  all  of  us  as  to  peace  or  war. 
Those  who  favor  permanent  world  peace  must  oppose  with  might  and 
main  the  proposals  for  peace  at  this  juncture  in  the  war,  whether  made 
in  socialistic  councils,  in  pro-German  conferences,  or  by  Pope  Benedict.  ' 


366317 


4  The   Menace   of   a    Premature    Peacis 

That  the  Pontiff  of  the  greatest  Christian  Church  should  wish  to  bring 
to  an  end  a  war  in  which  millions  of  its  communion  are  on  both  sides, 
is  to  be  expected.  That  he  should  preserve  a  difficult  neutrality  is  also 
natural.  That  his  high  purpose  is  to  save  the  world  from  further 
suffering  goes  without  saying.  But  the  present  is  not  the  opportunity 
of  an  intervening  peacemaker  who  must  assume  that  compromise  is 
possible. 

The  Allies  are  fighting  for  a  principle    the    mainte- 

NO  TIME  FOR  r        u-  u       4X     4.      ^u       i   ^  r      •    -r      .• 

^^..nn^.^.oT-  nance   of   which    affects    the    future    of    civilization. 

COMPROMISE  -rr        ,  1  1    •  -1  1  .^  , 

If  they  do  not  achieve  it  they  have  sacrificed 
the  flower  of  their  youth  and  mortgaged  their  future  for  a  century,  and 
all  for  nothing.  This  is  not  a  war  in  which  the  stake  is  territory  or 
the  sphere  of  influence  of  one  nation  over  another.  The  Allies  cannot 
concede  peace  until  they  conquer  it.  When  they  do  so,  it  will  be 
permanent.    Otherwise  they  fail. 

There  are  wars  like  that  between  Japan-  and  Russia,  in  which 
President  Roosevelt  properly  and  successfully  intervened  to  bring  about 
a  peace  that  helped  the  parties  to  a  settlement.  The  principle  at  stake 
and  the  power  and  territory  were  of  such  a  character  that  a  settlement 
might  be  made  substantially  permanent.  But  the  present  issue  is  like 
that  in  our  Civil  War,  which  was  whether  the  Union  was  to  be  preserved 
and  the  cancer  of  slavery  was  to  be  cut  out.  Peace  proposals  to 
President  Lincoln  were  quite  as  numerous  as  those  of  to-day,  and  were 
moved  by  quite  as  high  motives.  But  there  was  no  compromise  possi- 
ble. Either  slavery  and  disunion  lost  or  won.  So  to-day  the  great  moral 
object  of  the  war  must  be  achieved  or  defeated. 

An  organization  of  citizens   in   the  United  States, 

THE   LEAGUE  TO 

^i.jr^r^^r^r7  nr?Kr-r?        kuown  as  thc  Lcaguc  to  Enforce  Peace,  has  been 

ENFORCE   rEACt  . 

active  tor  two  years  past  in  promoting  its  propa- 
ganda. There  is  a  similar  association  in  England.  In  that  League  are 
many  persons  who  for  years  urged  the  settlement  of  all  international 
controversies  by  arbitration  or  judicial  decision.  The  vortex  of  death 
and  destruction  for  the  peoples  of  the  world,  which  the  breaking  out  of 
the  war  portended,  roused  these  peace  lovers  and  promoters  to  devise 
a  plan  for  avoiding  war  after  this  should  end. 

The  plan  is  a  simple  one.  It  looks  to  a  league  of  all  nations 
in  which  all  agree,  first,  that  legal  international  controversies  shall  be 
heard  and  decided  by  a  Court;  second,  that  controversies  not  to  be 
settled  on  principles  of  law   shall  be   submitted  to  a   Commission   of 


The    Menace    of   a    Premature    Peace  5 

Conciliation  for  recommendation  of  a  settlement ;  third,  that  the  united 
forces  of  the  nations  of  the  League  shall  resist  any  nation  beginning 
war  before  the  quarrel  has  been  submitted  to  one  tribunal  or  the  other, 
and  been  decided.  The  American  League  has  not  thought  it  wise  to 
attempt  to  enforce  the  judgment  or  the  settlement  recommended.  Its 
scheme  is  only  to  restrain  the  contending  parties  from  resorting  to 
war  until  after  the  peaceable  procedure  has  been  had  and  the  decision 
rendered.  The  promoters  of  the  League  believe  that  the  delay  and 
deliberation  arising  from  this  enforced  peaceable  procedure  before  a 
war  can  be  begun  will  prevent  most  wars,  and  that  it  is  wiser  not  to 
attempt  too  much,  lest  the  nations  decline  to  restrain  their  freedom 
of  action  so  much.  The  English  plan  is  more  ambitious  in  providing 
that  if  the  council  of  nations  so  decide  they  must  enforce  the  judgment 
or  settlement. 

Whatever  the  detailed  stipulations  of  such  a  league,  however,  its 
operation  and  success  must  depend  on  the  obligations  of  the  treaty 
stipulations.  Unless  their  binding  effect  is  recognized  by  the  nations 
as  a  sacred  principle,  the  stipulations  of  the  league  will  be  "writ  in 
water."  The  revelations  and  disclosures  of  this  war  will  satisfy  the 
members  of  the  league  that  as  long  as  the  present  military  caste 
controls  the  German  military  and  foreign  policy,  the  league  is  im- 
practicable, and  would  not  be  worth  the  parchment  on  which  its 
obligations  would  be  recorded.  Why  have  they  reached  this  conclusion  ? 
Why,  as  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  as  citizens  of  the  world 
anxious  to  promote  peace,  do  they  feel  that  any  proposal  of  peace  in 
the  present  situation  would  defeat  permanent  world  peace,  and  should 
be  opposed  by  them  with  all  the  energy  they  can  command?  The 
answer  to  this  question  must  be  found  in  the  causes  of  this  war  and 
the  revelations  it  has  made  of  Germany's  purpose,  stripped  of  confusing 
pretence  and  naked  for  the  whole  world  to  see. 

Germany  was  long  divided  into  little  states,  kingdoms,  duchies 
and  other  forms  of  one-man  rule.  She  was  the  prey  of  political 
intrigue  and  manipulation  of  other  powers.  All  her  well-wishers  hoped 
for  and  looked  forward  to  her  union.  The  Germans  of  yore  had  loved 
freedom.  We  Anglo-Saxons  were  Germans  once  and  our  representa- 
tive system  can  be  traced  back  to  institutions  found  first  in  the  forests 
of  Germany.  In  the  wars  of  the  first  Napoleon,  Prussia  and  other 
German  states  were  subjected  to  a  great  humiliation.  But  the  German 
youth  rebelled,  organized  themselves  into  military  reserves,  and  finally 
contributed  much  to  the  defeat  of  the  man  whose  lust  for  universal 
power  finds  its  counterpart  in  the  aim  of  the  HohenzoUerns  of  today. 


6  The    Menace    of    a    Premature    Peace 

The  Holy  Alliance,  retaining  the  principle  of  the  divine  right  of  kings, 
and  supporting  it  in  all  of  Germany,  left  no  opportunity  for  the  free 
exercise  of  political  power  by  these  liberty-loving  German  youth.  In 
1848,  democratic  revolutions  occurred  throughout  Germany  and  in 
Austria,  but  they  were  overcome.  Many  of  the  leaders  came  to  the 
United  States  and  with  their  followers  became  our  best  adopted  citizens. 
When  our  Civil  War  came  on,  their  hatred  of  slavery  led  them  to 
volunteer  for  their  adopted  country,  and  every  battlefield  of  the  war 
was  wet  with  German  blood. 

In  Germany  itself,  however,  the  liberal  element  was 

???^.n!?5J^,!!^'^!!      not   allowed  to  work  out  its  hopes.     It    had    looked 

MILITARISTIC 

POLICY  ^^  ^  united  and  liberal  Germany  with    a    government 

based    on    the    representative    system.     It    was    not 

to  be.    Under  the  first  William  with  his  Prime  Minister  Bismarck,  who 

came  to  power  in  1862,  a  definite  plan  was  adopted  of  perfecting  the 

already   well-disciplined   Prussian   army   so   that   by   "blood   and   iron" 

the  unity  of  Germany  should  be  achieved.     The  whole  Prussian  nation 

was  made  into  an  army,  and  it  soon  became  a  machine  with  a  power  of 

conquest  equaled  by  no  other.    The  cynical,  unscrupulous,  but  efifective, 

diplomacy   of   Bismarck   first   united   Prussia   with  Austria   to   deprive 

Denmark  of  Schleswig-Holstein  by  force,  then  secured  a  quarrel  with 

Austria  over  the  spoils,  and  deprived    her    of    all    influence    over    the 

German    states  by  humiliating  defeat  in  the   six  weeks   war  of   1866. 

After  this  war,  several  German  states  were  annexed  forcibly  to  Prussia 

and  offensive  and  defensive  alliances  were  made  with  others. 

Then  in  1870  the  occasion  was  seized,  when  it  was  known  that 
France  was  not  prepared,  to  strike  at  her.  France  was  beaten,  and 
Alsace  and  Lorraine  were  taken  from  her..  The  German  Empire  was 
established  with  a  Prussian  King  at  its  head.  France  was  made  to 
pay  an  indemnity  of  one  billion  dollars,  with  which  the  military  machine 
of  Germany  was  strengthened  and  improved.  Then  Germany  settled 
down  to  a  period  of  peace  to  digest  the  territory  which  by  these  three 
wars  had  been  absorbed.  Bismarck's  purpose  in  maintaining  the 
superiority  of  his  army  was  to  retain  what  had  been  taken  by  blood 
and  iron,  and  at  the  same  time  by  a  period  of  prolonged  peace  to  give 
to  Germany  a  full  opportunity  for  industrial  development  and  the  self- 
discipline  necessary  for  the  highest  efficiency. 

The  marvelous  work  which  the  Germans  have  accomplished  in 
their  field  of  industrial  activity  is  known  to  all.  The  prosperity  which 
followed  increased  the  population  of  Germany  and  crowded  her  borders. 


The    Menace    of    a    Premature    Peace  7 

Bismarck  was  dismissed  by  the  present  Emperor,  but  his  policy  of 
maintaining  the  highest  efficiency  of  the  army  was  continued.  And 
then,  as  the  success  of  the  German  system  in  the  material  development 
of  the  Empire  showed  itself  and  became  the  admiration  of  the  world, 
the  destiny  of  Germany  grew  larger  in  the  eyes  of  her  Emperor  and 
her  people,  and  the  blood  and  iron  policy  which  had  been  directed  first 
to  the  achievement  of  the  unity  of  Germany  and  then  to  the  defense 
of  the  German  Empire  in  the  enjoyment  of  what  had  been  taken  in 
previous  wars,  expanded  into  a  dream,  of  Germanizing  the  world.  The 
German  p.eople  were  impregnated  with  this  idea  by  every  method  of 
official  instruction.  A  cult  of  philosophy  to  spread  the  propaganda 
developed  itself  in  the  universities  and  schools.  The  principle  was  that 
the  state  could  do  no  wrong,  that  the  state  was  an  entity  that  must  be 
sustained  by  force ;  that  everything  else  must  be  sacrificed  to  its 
strength;  that  the  only  sin  the  state  could  commit  was  neglect  and 
failure  to  maintain  its  power. 

With  that  dogmatic  logic  which  pleases  the  German  mind,  and 
to  which  it  readily  adapts  itself,  this  proposition  easily  led  into  the 
further  conclusion  that  there  could  be  no  international  morality;  that 
morality  and  its  principles  applied  only  to  individuals,  but  that  when 
the  action  of  the  state  was  involved,  considerations  of  honor,  of  the 
preservation  of  obligations  solemnly  made,  must  yield  if  the  interests 
of  the  state  required.  These  were  the  principles  taught  by  Treitschke 
in  the  University  of  Berlin  and  maintained  by  German  economic 
philosophers  and  by  the  representative  of  the  military  regime  in 
Bernhardi. 

TAri  Bismarck  had  been  keen  enough  in  his  diplomacy  to  await 
the  opportunity  that  events  presented  for  seeming  to  be 
forced  into  a  war  which  he  had  long  planned.  This  was  the  case  with 
Denmark.  This  was  the  case  with  Austria,  This  was  the  case  with 
France.  German  diplomacy  has  lost  nothing  of  this  characteristic  in 
the  present  war.  Germany  did  not  plan  the  killing  of  the  Austrian 
Archduke  and  his  consort,  but  the  minute  that  that  presented  the 
likelihood  of  war,  Germany  accepted  it  as  the  opportunity  for  her  to 
strike  down  her  neighbors,  Russia  and  France,  and  to  enlarge  her 
power.  She  gladly  gave  her  consent  to  the  ultimatum  of  Austria  to 
Servia  that  was  sure  to  bring  on  war,  and  then  posed  as  one  driven  into 
war  by  the  mobilization  of  Russia. 

She  knew  that  Russia  was  utterly  unprepared.  She  knew  that 
France  was  unprepared.    She  knew  that  Great  Britain  was  unprepared. 


8  The    Menace    of    a    Premature    Peace 

She  herself  was  ready  to  the  last  cannon  and  the  last  reservist.  There- 
fore, when  appealed  to  by  Great  Britain  and  by  all  the  other  Powers 
to  intervene  and  prevent  Austria  from  forcing  a  universal  war,  Germany 
declined  to  act.  Not  a  telegram  or  communication  between  Germany 
and  Austria  has  ever  been  given  to  the  public  to  show  the  slightest 
effort  to  induce  delay  by  Austria.  While  Germany  would  pose  as  having 
acted  only  as  Austria's  ally  and  as  unwilling  to  influence  her  against  her 
interest  and  independent  judgment,  the  verdict  of  history  unquestion- 
ably will  be  that  the  war  is  due  to  Germany's  failure  to  prevent  it  and 
to  her  desire  to  accept  the  opportunity  of  the  assassination  of  the 
Austrian  Archduke  as  a  convenient  time  to  begin  a  war  she  long  in- 
tended. The  revelation  of  their  unpreparedness  is  sufficient  to  show  that 
England,  France  and  Russia  did  not  conspire  to  bring  the  war  on.  On 
the  other  hand,  before  the  war  began  Germany  had  constructed  a  com- 
plete system  of  strategic  railways  on  her  Belgian  border,  adapted  not 
to  commercial  uses,  but  only  to  the  quick  invasion  of  Belgium. 

Indeed,    every    fact    as    the    war    has    developed 

.^..*To^  r^r^w^nMA'^j^r  forms  ouc  morc  circumstance  in  the  irrefragable 
AGAINST  GERMANY  .  ^  ,      ^  ,  , 

case   agamst   Germany  as  the  Power   responsible 

for  this  world  disaster.  The  preparation  of  fifty  years,  the  false 
philosophy  of  her  destiny  and  of  the  exaltation  of  force,  had  given  her 
a  yearning  for  conquest,  for  the  expansion  of  her  territory,  the  exten- 
sion of  her  influence,  and  the  Germanization  of  the  world.     She  alone 

1  is  responsible  for  the  incalculable  destruction  of  this  war.  She  led  on 
in  the  armament  of  the  world  that  she  might  rule  it.  She  promoted 
therefore  the  armament  of  other  nations.  Her  system  was  followed, 
though  not  as  effectively,  by  other  countries  in  pure  defense  of  their 
peace  and  safety. 

And    now    her    Emperor,  her    Prussian    military    caste,  and    her 

V  wonderful  but  blinded  people,  have  the  blood  of  the  millions  who  have 
suffered  in  this  world  catastrophe  on  their  hands.  The  German  military 
doctrine,  that  when  the  interests  of  the  state  are  concerned,  the  question 
is  one  of  power  and  force,  and  not  of  honor  or  obligation  or  moral 
restraint,  finds  its  most  flagrant  examples  in  Germany's  conduct  of 
this   war. 

Her  breach  of  a  solemn  obligation  entered  into  by  her  and  all  the 
powers  of  Europe,  in  respect  to  Belgium's  neutrality,  was  its  first 
exhibition.  It  was  followed  by  the  well  proven,  deliberate  plan  of 
atrocities  against  the  men,  women  and  children  of  a  part  of  Belgium 
in  order  to  terrorize  the  rest  of  the  population  into  complete  submission. 


The    Menace    of    a    Premature    Peace  9 

It  was  shown  in  the  prompt  dropping  of  bombs  on  defenceless  towns 
from  Zeppelins  and  other  aircraft;  in  the  killing  of  non-combatant 
men,  women  and  children  by  the  naval  bombardment  of  unfortified 
towns;  in  the  use  of  liquid  fire  and  poison  gases  in  battle.  All  of 
these  had  been  condemned  as  improper  in  declarations  in  the  Hague 
treaties. 

^r,«.,»^T         The  Reptile  Fund,  which  was  used  under  Bismarck  for  the 

GERMAN  ,       .,  r       t  ,     r  ,  f 

INTRIGUE  bribery  of  the  press  and  for  the  mamtenance  oi  a  spy 
system,  has  been  enlarged  and  elaborated,  so  that  German 
bribery  has  extended  the  world  over,  and  the  German  espionage  has 
exceeded  anything  known  to  history.  The  medieval  use  by  the  Hohen- 
zollerns  of  dynastic  kinship  has  paralyzed  the  action  of  the  peoples  of 
Greece  and  Russia.  And  now  we  know  by  recent  revelation,  of  the  aid 
that  Swedish  diplomats  are  furnishing  to  Germany  in  her  submarine 
warfare  against  neutral  ships,  and  that  it  is  made  possible  by  the  in- 
fluence of  the  German  consort  of  the  Swedish  King. 

Intrigue,  dishonor,  cruelty,  have  characterized  the  entire  military 
policy  of  Germany.  The  rules  of  international  law  have  been  cast 
to  the  winds.  The  murderous  submarine  has  sunk  without  warning 
the  non-combatant  commercial  vessels  of  the  enemy  and  sent  their 
officers,  their  crews  and  their  passengers,  men,  women  and  children, 
to  the  bottom  without  warning.  Not  only  has  this  policy  been  pursued 
against  enemy  commercial  vessels,  but  also  against  neutral  commercial 
vessels,  and  parts  of  the  crew  have  been  assembled  on  the  submarines 
and  then  the  submarine  has  been  submerged  and  the  victims  left  strug- 
gling in  the  ocean's  waste  to  drown.  We  find  a  German  diplomat 
telegraphing  from  a  neutral  port  to  the  German  headquarters  advising 
that  if  the  submarine  be  used  against  the  vessels  of  that  neutral  power 
it  leave  no  trace  of  the  attack.  In  other  words,  the  murder  of  the  crews 
must  be  complete,  because  "dead  men  tell  no  tales." 

>*»  Having  violated  the  neutrality  of  Belgium,  having  broken  its 
sacred  obligations  to  that  country  and  her  people,  it  is  now  enslaving 
them  by  taking  them  from  Belgium  and  enforcing  their  labor  in 
Germany.  This  is  contrary  to  every  rule  of  international  law,  and  is  in 
the  teeth  of  the  plainest  principles  of  justice  and  honor.  All  these 
things  are  done  for  the  state.  It  is  not  that  the  nature  of  the  German 
people  generally  is  cruel — that  is  not  the  case.  But  the  minds  of  the 
German  people  have  been  poisoned  with  this  false  philosophy;  and  the 
ruling  caste  in  Germany,  in  its  desperate  desire  to  win,  has  allowed  no 
consideration  of  humanity  or  decency  or  honor  to  prevent  its  use  of 


10  The    Menace    of    a    Premature    Peace 

any  means  which  in  any  way   could  by  hook  or  crook   accomplish  a 
military  purpose. 

When  the  war  began,  Germany  was  able  to  convince  her  people 
and  to  convince  many  in  the  world  that  the  issue  in  the  war  was  not 
the  exaltation  of  the  military  power  of  Germany  and  the  expansion  of 
her  plan  of  destiny,  but  that  it  was  a  mere  controversy  between  the 
Teuton  and  the  Slav,  and  Germany  asked  with  great  plausibility,  "Will 
you  have  the  world  controlled  by  the  Slav  or  by  the  German?"  Those 
who  insisted  that  the  issue  was  one  of  militarism  against  the  peace 
of  the  world,  of  democracy  against  military  autocracy,  of  freedom 
against  military  tyranny,  were  met  with  the  argument,  "Russia  is  an 
ally.  She  is  a  greater  despotism  and  a  greater  military  autocracy 
than  Germany."  As  the  war  wore  on,  the  real  issue  was  cleared  of 
this  confusion.  Russia  became  a  democracy.  The  fight  was  between 
governments  directed  by  their  people  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  military 
dynasties  of  Germany,  Austria,  and  Turkey,  on  the  other. 

THF  piTRPn<5F  President  Wilson  says  the  Allies  are  fighting  to  make 
OF  THE  WAR  ^^^  world  safe  for  democracy.  Some  misconception 
has  been  created  on  this  head.  The  Allies  are  not 
struggling  to  force  a  particular  form  of  government  on  Germany.  If 
the  German  people  continue  to  wish  an>  Emperor  it  is  not  the  purpose 
of  the  Allies  to  require  them  to  have  a  republic.  Their  purpose  is  to 
end  the  military  policy  and  foreign  policy  of  Germany  that  looks  to 
the  maintenance  of  a  military  and  naval  machine,  with  its  hair-trigger 
preparation  for  use  against  her  neighbors.  If  this  continues,  it  will 
entail  on  every  democratic  government  the  duty  of  maintaining  a  similar 
armament  in  self-defense,  or,  what  is  more  likely,  the  duty  will  be 
wholly  or  partly  neglected.  Thus  the  policy  of  Germany,  with  her 
purpose  and  destiny,  will  threaten  every  democracy.  This  is  the  con- 
dition which  it  is  the  determined  purpose  of  the  Allies,  as  interpreted 
by  President  Wilson,  to  change. 

How  is  the  change  to  be  effected?  By  defeating  Germany  in 
this  war.  The  German  people  have  been  very  loyal  to  their  Emperor, 
because  his  leadership  accords  with  the  false  philosophy  of  the  state 
and  German  destiny,  with  which  they  have  been  indoctrinated  and 
poisoned.  A  defeat  of  the  military  machine,  a  defeat  of  the  Franken- 
stein of  the  military  dynasty  to  which  they  have  been  sacrificed,  must 
open  their  eyes  to  the  hideous  futility  of  their  political  course.  The 
German  Government  will    then    be    changed  as  its  people  will  have  it 


The    Menace   of   a    Premature    Peace  11 

changed,  to  avoid  a  recurrence  of  such  a  tragedy  as  they  have  deHber- 
ately  prepared  for  themselves. 

Men  who  see  clearly  the  kind  of  peace  which  we  must  have,  in 
order  to  be  a  real  and  lasting  peace,  can  have  no  sympathy  therefore 
with  a  patched-up  peace,  one  made  at  a  council  table,  the  result  of 
diplomatic  chaffering  and  bargaining.  Men  who  look  forward  to  a 
League  of  the  World  to  Enforce  Peace  in  the  future  can  have  no 
patience  with  a  compromise  that  leaves  the  promoting  cause  of  the 
present  awful  war  unaffected  and  unremoved.  This  war  is  now  being 
fought  by  the  Allies  as  a  League  to  Enforce  Peace.  Unless  they  com- 
pel it  by  victory,  they  do  not  enforce  it.  They  do  not  make  the 
military  autocracies  of  the  world  into  nations  fit  for  a  World  League, 
unless  they  convince  them  by  a  lesson  of  defeat. 

».-^«,^..«  «.«,,,  And  now  what  of  the  United  States?  When 
AMERICA'S   PART  ,  ,  r  •       .1 

the     war     came     on,    there     were    a    few    m    the 

United  States  who  felt  that  the  invasion  of  Belgium  required  a  protest 
on  the  part  of  our  government,  and  some  indeed  who  felt  that  we 
should  join  in  the  war  at  once.  But  the  great  body  of  the  American 
people,  influenced  by  our  traditional  policy  of  avoiding  European 
quarrels,  stood  by  the  Administration  in  desiring  to  maintain  a  strict 
neutrality.  I  think  it  is  not  unfair  to  say  that  a  very  large  proportion 
of  the  intelligent  and  thinking  people  of  the  United  States — and  that 
means  a  great  majority — sympathized  with  the  Allies  in  the  struggle 
which  they  were  making.  But  many  with  us  of  German  descent, 
prompted  by  a  pride  in  the  notable  advance  in  the  world  of  German 
enterprise,  German  ingenuity,  German  discipline,  German  efficiency, 
and  regarding  the  struggle  as  an  issue  between  Teuton  and  Slav, 
extended  their  sympathy  to  their  Fatherland. 

As  conscientiously  as  possible,  the  Administration  and  the  country 
pursued  the  course  laid  down  by  international  law  as  that  which  a 
neutral  should  take.  International  law  is  the  rule  of  conduct  of  nations 
toward  one  another,  accepted  and  acquiesced  in  by  all  nations.  It  is 
not  always  as  definite  as  one  would  like,  and  the  acquiescence  of  all 
nations  is  not  always  as  clearly  established  as  it  ought  to  be.  But  in 
the  law  of  war  as  to  capture  at  sea  of  commercial  vessels,  the  principles 
have  been  established  clearly  by  the  decision  of  prize  courts  of  all 
nations,  English,  American,  Prussian  and  French.  The  right  of  non- 
combatants  on  commercial  vessels,  officers,  crew  and  passengers,  either 
enemy  or  neutral,  to  be  secure  from  danger  of  life,  has  always  been 
recognized  and  never  contested.     Nevertheless,  Germany  sank,  without 


12  The   Menace   of   a   Premature    Peace 

warning,  150  American  citizens,  men,  women  and  children,  and  sent 
them  to  their  death  by  a  submarine  torpedo,  simply  because  they 
happened  to  be  on  English  or  American  commercial  vessels.  We  pro- 
tested and  Germany  halted  for  a  time.  We  thought  that  if  we  condoned 
the  death  of  150  we  might  still  maintain  peace  with  that  Power. 

But  it  was  not  to  be,  and  after  more  than  a  year  Germany 
announced  her  purpose  to  resume  this  murderous  and  illegal  course 
toward  innocent  Americans.  Had  we  hesitated,*  we  would  have  lost 
our  independence  as  a  people.  We  would  have  subscribed  abjectly  to 
the  doctrine  that  might  makes  right.  Germany  left  no  door  open  to 
us  as  a  self-respecting  nation  except  that  which  led  to  war.  She 
deliberately  forced  us  into  the  ranks  of  her  enemies,  and  she  did  it 
because  she  was  obsessed  with  the  belief  that  the  submarine  was  the 
instrument  of  destruction  by  which  she  might  win  the  war.  She 
recked  not  that  as  she  used  it,  it  was  a  weapon  of  murder  of  innocents. 
Making  military  efficiency  her  god,^nd  exalting  the  appliances  of 
science  in  the  killing  of  men,  she  ignored  all  other  consequences. 

Germany's  use  of  the  submarine  brought  us  into  the  war.  But 
being  in,  we  recognized  as  fully  as  any  of  our  Allies  do  that  its  far 
greater  issue  is  whether  German  militarism  shall  continue  after  this  war 
to  be  a  threat  to  the  peace  of  the  world,  or  whether  we  shall  end  that 
threat  by  this  struggle  in  which  we  are  to  spend  our  life's  blood.  We 
must  not  therefore  be  turned  from  the  stern  necessity  of  winning 
this   war. 

When  the  war  began  and    its    horrible    character    was 

THE  MORAL  j       i        ^    ^u  i  u 

.^«-j„  soon  disclosed,  there  were  many  religious  persons  who 

found  their  faith  in  God  shaken  by  the  fact  that 
millions  of  innocent  persons  could  be  headed  into  this  vortex  of  blood 
and  destruction  without  the  saving  intervention  of  their  Creator.  But 
the  progress  of  the  war  has  revealed  much,  and  it  has  stimulated  our 
just  historic  sense.  It  shows  ^at  the  world  had  become,  through  the 
initiative  of  Germany  and  the  following  on  of  the  other  nations, 
afflicted  with  the  cancer  of  militarism.  God  reveals  the  greatness  of 
His  power  and  His  omnipotence  not  by  fortuitous  and  sporadic  inter- 
vention, but  by  the  working  out  of  His  inexorable  law.  A  cancer  if  it 
is  not  to  consume  the  body  must  be  cut  out,  and  the  cutting  out  of  it 
necessarily  involves  suffering  and  pain  in  the  body.  The  sacrifices  of 
lives  and  treasure  are  inevitable  in  the  working  out  of  the  cure  of  the 
world  malady.    But  we  must  win  the  war  to  vindicate  this  view. 


The    Menace    of    a    Premature    Peace  13 

We  are  now  able  to  see  the  providential  punishment  and  weak- 
ness that  follows  the  violation  of  moral  law.  The  crass  materialism 
of  the  German  philosophy  that  exalts  force  above  morality,  power  above 
honor  and  decency,  success  above  humanity,  has  blinded  the  German 
ruling  caste  to  the  strength  of  moral  motives  that  control  other  peoples, 
and  involved  them  in  the  fundamental  mistakes  that  will  cause  their 
downfall.  They  assumed  that  England,  burdened  with  Ireland,  would 
violate  her  own  obligation  and  abandon  Belgium  and  would  leave  her 
ally  France  to  be  deprived  of  all  her  colojiial  possessions.  They 
assumed  that  France  was  decadent,  permeated  with  socialism,  and 
unable  to  make  a  contest  in  her  state  of  unpreparedness.  They  assumed 
that  England's  colonies,  attached  only  by  the  lightest  tie,  and  entirely 
independent,  if  they  chose  to  be,  would  not  sacrifice  themselves  to 
help  the  mother  land  in  her  struggle,  ^ow  false  the  German  conclusion 
as  to  England's  national  conscience  and  fighting  power,  as  to  France's 
decadence  and  patriotic  fervor  and  strength,  and  as  to  the  filial  loyalty 
of  England's  daughters ! 

And  now  at  the  crisis  of  the  war,  when  the  victory  must  abide 
the  weight  of  wealth,  resources,  food,  equipment,  and  fighting  men, 
the  German  military  dynasty,  contemptuous  of  a  peace-loving  people, 
brings  into  the  contest  a  nation  fresh  in  its  strength,  which  can  furnish 
more  money,  more  food,  and  more  fighting  men,  if  need  be,  than  any 
other  nation  in  the  world. 

But  we  are  at  a  danger  point.  England  and  France 
JV,  AVAR  ^^^  Russia  since  1914  have  been  fighting  the  battle 
of  the  world  and  fighting  for  us  of  America.  The 
three  years  or  more  of  war  have  drained  their  vitality,  strained  their 
credit,  exhausted  their  man-power,  subjected  many  of  their  non- 
combatants  to  suffering  and  destruction,  and  they  have  the  war  weari- 
ness which  dulls  the  earlier  eager  enthusiasm  for  the  principles  at 
stake.  Now  specious  proposals  for  peace  are  likely  to  be  most  alluring 
to  the  faint-hearted,  and  most  powerful  in  the  hands  of  traitors.  Russia, 
rid  of  the  Czar,  is  torn  with  dissensions,  and  the  extreme  socialists  and 
impractical  theorists,  blind  to  the  ultimate  destruction  of  their  hopes 
that  a  loss  of  this  war  will  entail,  are  many  of  them  turning  for  a 
separate  peace. 

The  intervention  of  the  United.  States,  by  her  financial  aid,  has 
helped  much ;  but  her  armies  are  needed  and  she,  a  republic  unprepared, 
must  have  the  time  to  prepare.  The  war  is  now  to  be  determined  by 
the  active  tenacity  of  purpose  of  the  contestants.  England  showed  that 
tenacity   in   the   wars   of   Napoleon.      Napoleon   succumbed.      General 


14  The    Menace    of    a    Premature    Peace 

Grant,  in  his  Memoirs,  says  that  the  battle  is  won  not  in  the  first  day, 
but  by  the  commander  and  the  army  that  is  ready,  even  after  apparent 
defeat,  to  begin  the  next  day.  It  is  the  side  that  has  the  nerve  that 
will  win.  The  intervention  of  the  United  States  has  strengthened  that 
nerve  in  England,  France  and  Italy.  But  delay  and  disappointment 
give  full  opportunity  to  the  lethargic,  the  cowardly,  the  factious,  to 
make  the  task  of  the  patriot  and  the  loyal  men  doubly  heavy.  This  is 
the  temper  of  the  situation  among  our  European  allies. 

With  us  at  home  the  great  body  of  our  people  are  loyal  and 
strong  for  the  war.  Of  course  a  people,  however  intelligent,  when 
very  prosperous  and  comfortable,  and  not  well  advised  as  to  the  vital 
concern  they  have  in  the  issue  of  a  war  across  a  wide  ocean  and 
thousands  of  miles  away,  it  takes  time  to  convince.  But  we  have,  for 
the  first  time  in  the  history  of  our  republic,  begun  a  war  right.  We 
have  begun  with  a  conscription  law  which  requires  service  from  men 
of  a  certain  age  from  every  walk  of  life.  It  is  democratic  in  principle, 
and  yet  it  offers  to  the  Government  the  means  of  selection  so  that 
those  who  shall  be  sent  to  the  front  may  be  best  fitted  to  represent  the 
nation  there,  and  those  best  able  to  do  the  work  in  field  and  factory 
essential  to  our  winning  at  the  front,  may  be  retained.  We  have 
adopted  a  merit  system  of  selecting  from  the  intelligent  and  educated 
youth  of  the  country  the  company  officers  of  an  army  of  a  million  and 
a  half  or  two  million  that  we  are  now  preparing.  The  machinery  of 
the  draft  naturally  has  creaked  some  because  it  had  to  be  so  hastily 
constructed,  but  on  the  whole  it  has  worked  well.  Those  who  devised 
it  and  have  carried  it  through  are  entitled  to  great  credit. 

The  lessons  of  the  three  years  of  the  war  are  being  learned  and 
applied  in  our  war  equipment  and  in  neutralizing,  by  new  construction, 
the  submarine  destruction  of  commercial  transports.  Adequate 
measures  for  the  raising  of  the  money  needed  to  finance  the  war  and 
finance  our  Allies,  have  been  carried  through  Congress  or  are  so  near 
enactment  as  to  be  practically  on  the  statute  book.  Food  conservation 
is  provided  for.  But  of  course  it  takes  time  for  a  hundred  million  of 
peace  lovers  and  non-militarists  to  get  ready,  however  apt,  however 
patriotic,  however  determined.  It  is  in  the  period  of  the  year  before 
the  United  States  can  begin  to  fight  that  the  strain  is  to  come  in 
Europe.  But  Germany  is  stopped  on  the  Western  and  Italian  fronts. 
The  winter  coming  will  be  harder  on  her  than  on  the  Allies 

"It  is  dogged  that  does  it."  Stamp  on  all  proposals  of  peace  as 
ill  advised  or  seditious,  and  then  time  will  make  for  our  certain 
victory. 


The    Menace    of    a    Premature    Peace  15 

While  there  has  been  pro-German  sentiment  in  the  United  States, 
and  while  the  paid  emissaries  of  Germany  have  been  busy  trying  to 
create  as  much  opposition  to  the  war  as  possible,  and  have  found  a 
number  of  weak  dupes  and  unintelligent  persons  who  don't  understand 
the  importance  of  the  war,  to  aid  them,  our  allies  should  know  that 
the  whole  body  of  the  American  people  will  earnestly  support  the 
President  and  Congress  in  carrying  out  the  measures  which  have  been 
adopted  by  the  United  States  to  win  this  war. 

When  the  war  is  won,  the  United  States  will  wish 
WILL  LAST         ^^  ^^  heard  and  will  have  a  right  to  be  heard  as  to 

the  terms  of  peace.  The  United  States  will  insist  on 
a  just  peace,  not  one  of  material  conquest.  It  is  a  moral  victory  the 
world  should  win.  I  think  I  do  not  mistake  the  current  of  public 
sentiment  throughout  our  entire  country  in  saying  that  our  people  will 
favor  an  international  agreement  by  which  the  peace  brought  about 
through  such  blood  and  suffering  and  destruction  and  enormous 
sacrifice  shall  be  preserved  by  the  joint  power  of  the  world.  Whether 
the  terms  of  the  League  to  Enforce  Peace  as  they  are  will  be  taken 
as  a  basis  for  agreement,  or  a  modified  form,  something  of  the  kind 
must  be  attempted. 

Meantime,  let  us  hope  and  pray  that  all  the  Allies  will  reject 
proposals  for  settlement  and  compromise  of  every  nature ;  that  they 
will  adhere  rigidly  and  religiously  to  the  principle  that  until  a  victorious 
result  gives  security  that  the  world  shall  not  again  be  drenched  in  blood 
through  the  insanely  selfish  policy  of  a  military  caste  ruling  a  deluded 
people  intoxicated  with  material  success  and  power,  there  will  be  no 
peace. 


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Makers 
Syracuse.  N.  Y. 

MT.  JAN.  21.  1908 


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